FinMin sees Rs 50K cr worth projects to go on stream in FY'14

New Delhi: Foreign investment in India would get a boost once the new Cabinet Committee on Investment (CCI) starts clearing projects to the tune of Rs 50,000 crore in the next fiscal year, says a top finance ministry official.

The clearances will also give an impetus to the infrastructure projects, Department of Economic Affairs Secretary Arvind Mayaram said in an interview.

"We would see many projects coming on stream in the next fiscal. CCI approvals would be for total investments of about Rs 50,000 crore by March end," he said.

The government has constituted a CCI, under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, to accord fast track clearances to high-end projects for their time-bound implementation.

"Once the approval process is streamlined and the approval process is hassle free, then much more FDI is likely to flow into the country," he said.

Mayaram said ministries have now have started taking quicker decision and are acting to clear projects faster approach the CCI.

The CCI has met twice so far to and discussed clearances to projects in coal, power and oil and gas sectors.

The government has been taking steps to streamline investment and Finance Minister P Chidambaram has also been engaging with investors to attract overseas investment.

The Minister would travel to Canada, Japan and the Gulf region to woo overseas investors.Fast tracking investments would provide impetus to the economy, which is grappling with slowdown. The economic growth rate in the current fiscal is estimated to have slowed to a decade's low of 5 percent, mainly because of slowdown in manufacturing and poor investment. The growth rate in 2011-12 was 6.2 percent.

Several mega projects, including Posco's proposed USD 12- billion steel plant in Odisha, has been hanging fire because of regulatory clearances and land acquisition issues.

Several large projects involving investments of an estimated Rs 1.5 lakh crore are being held up because of delay in statutory clearances.

To reduce delay in clearances of projects, in June last year Singh had set up of an Investment Tracking System to ensure speedy implementation of mega projects envisaging outlay of over Rs 1,000 crore.